lay in ruins

By the end of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did much of the north.

When they emerged, the structure’s roof was gone and the city lay in ruins.

And its Olympic venues lay in ruins.

When I lived in Germany in the 1950’s and took trips with my parents through Germany and France and Italy, you could still see the damage done in World War II. Churches from the 13th and 14th centuries in small towns lay in ruins with maybe a single stone wall still standing.

Bodies of dead men and women were scattered in streets that had relatively little damage while a block of buildings lay in ruins with people searching for survivors.